Cadence

Cadence is an electro-magnetic flip-disc display that chronicles vehicular activity on a one-kilometre stretch of highway during rush hour.

Each vehicle’s headlights are portrayed by two white discs. The fast lane is positioned at the top of the display, below which are the middle lane and slow lane. The curved lane that ascends at bottom left represents the entry ramp, while the exit ramp on the lower right carries traffic off of the highway. The sinusoidal wave generated by the emergent traffic patterns can be seen in the compression and expansion of the vehicles as they travel.

If you view Cadence from the side—perpendicular to the piece—you can see the flutter of hundreds of discs as they carry information across the display. The sound generated by the piece is derived from the subtle clapping of the discs against the display as each circle rotates from one position to another.

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Downtown

Photographic composite, 95"x48", 2014

Downtown is a collection of photographic composites that depict movement through a sliver of space. All 14 of Toronto's downtown subway stations are represented in this collection of narrow photographs.

Time in each of the composites is presented from the left side of the image to the right. The left-most edge represents events that take place about 1 minute before events at the right-most edge. As a result, the speed of objects that pass through the sliver of space affects how they are depicted in the composite. Fast moving bodies are recorded for a shorter length of time, and thus appear compressed from left to right, while slow moving images appear for a greater length of time and thus appear elongated from left to right. And of course, at the extreme are objects that don't move at all, which appear stretched across the entire composite. As a train speeds into the station, slows to a stop, and then accelerates again to leave, its form appears compressed, then stretched, then compressed again.

Grand Central Terminal

Single channel video (HD), 107 minutes, 2014

The single channel video, Grand Central Terminal, depicts activity in the main concourse of New York's iconic train station. The piece separates the stationary from the ambulatory, exposing the symbiotic patterns of movement and dormancy within the station. As time progresses the light and shadows shift, and the patterns of commuters who use the space primarily as a conduit, are replaced by tourists who engage with the space as a destination.

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excerpts from Grand Central Terminal

Primaries

Photographic Series, 24"x36", 2012-13

A “primary” is the object around which a satellite orbits. In this series, the photographer acts as satellite while individual trees act as primaries. The portraits that result reveal the essence of a particular tree by rendering it from multiple vantage points simultaneously.

Forsythia (2013)

Japanese Maple (2012)

Basswood (2013)

Japanese Maple No. 2 (2012)

English Oak (2012)

Magnolia (2013)

Weeping Nootka Cyprus (2012)

Flowering Dogwood (2013)

Sapling (2012)

Copper Beech (2012)

Tulip Poplar (2013)

Continuous New York

How does our bodily experience of place influence our conceptualization of space? In an attempt to tie together the experience of the specific with an understanding of the whole, in Continuous New York the city is presented in the capacity of both place and space. Place is shown in a vertical panoramic window that depicts a rainbow-like arc cast over the streetscape. The dizzying affect of the skyscrapers is captured in a complete 180-degree depiction of place. This panorama is juxtaposed with 74 others, each depicting a space 200 metres away from its neighbour. The numerous windows placed side-by-side form a continuous and unbroken loop through the island of Manhattan. The space of New York as a whole can be witnessed in its entirety while maintaining connection with the experience of individual place(s). The collapse of place and space exposes both the unabbreviated physical form and the intimate living details of the metropolis.

ONE KILOMETRE, TWO MINUTES

Installation: 4,700 Map pins, 156" x 48", 2011

One Kilometre, Two Minutes illustrates the emergent behaviour of moving vehicles on a kilometre-long stretch of highway over the course of two minutes. Time-lapse aerial captures that depict the fast lane of a multi-lane highway are taken every two seconds. These time-lapse captures are then placed side by side, centimetres apart, illustrating the flow pattern of complex multi-vehicular movement through a narrow corridor of space. The curved form of the highway is articulated only by the repetition of taillights and brake lights. These lights are represented by pearl-head map pins fastened directly to the gallery walls (smaller pins represent tail lights, while larger pins represent brake lights).

Moments of congestion are articulated by clusters of brake lights, while free-flowing traffic is represented by running lights distantly spaced from one another. Through the representation individual driving habits emerge: a large gap between the same two cars over the captured two minute duration appears as a wide river-like swath of negative space that stretches to the upper left corner; tailgaters clustered together create dense red ribbons of congestion; antsy lane changes cause other drivers to brake and relinquish hard earned territory.

Detail of installation view, WARC Gallery, 2011

Downsview Station

Video series: HD single channel video, variable durations, 2011

Downsview Station is the first in the Pulse Crowds series. Pulse Crowds are representations of urban spaces in which the movement of people and vehicles is influenced by an external mechanized event. These events produce an undulating effect on the spaces' inhabitants: activity in the space shifts from static to active in a repetitive rhythm, highlighting both the archetypes and the outliers of pedestrian and vehicular movement.

In Downsview Station the emergent behaviour of pedestrian crowds is orchestrated around a single registration mark: the chimes that signal the opening of the trains' doors.

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Excerpt from Pulse Crowds (Downsview Station)

Iterations

Iterations is a series of 96” x 24” panoramas of familiar built forms and their surrounding environments (including branded structures, street furniture, and suburban housing). Each panorama is comprised of seven or more photographs that are composited through transparency overlay. Thus, for example, Seven Essos, Toronto, consists of seven different Esso gas stations from around the city of Toronto superimposed on one another, creating a juxtaposition of the common and unique characteristics of each panoramic scene. Consistent elements reinforce each other through repetition such as the bright red canopy over the pumps, while inconsistencies, such as the surrounding environment or placement of columns, appear more ghost-like. The archetype of each architectural form emerges as a result of this accumulation of formal information.

Eight Streetcar Shelters (Day), Spadina Avenue (2011)

Detail

Eight Streetcar Shelters (Night), Spadina Avenue (2013)

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Seven Essos, Toronto (2009)

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Nine Beer Stores, Southern Ontario (2010)

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Eleven Home Depots, Southern Ontario (2010)

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Eight Best Buys, Southern Ontario (2010)

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The Impossibility of Understanding in the Path of a Torontonian

The Impossibility of Understanding in the Path of a Torontonian, is a video installation consisting of four horizontally stacked video streams. The top three streams each depict the movement path of a different individual, each of whom live in separate regions of the city. Each stream re-presents one full day of movement through the city. Simultaneously, the fourth and bottom video stream displays a streetscape of the entirety of Toronto—from one edge of the metropolis to the other. As the camera cuts through the city, this streetscape depicts buildings, parks, bridges, cars, and pedestrians—all of the actors in the urban environment. The juxtaposition of these four streams of video offers both an opportunity to witness the ways in which individuals experience the city and to witness the city as a whole from one side to the other.

Consisting of highly composited imagery, in which each stream is comprised of billions of stills, the piece merges video representation into a stills representation. Achieved through the design and implementation of custom Processing software, this produces the uncanny effect of buildings coming to life and then forced motionless into the passing of time, and lively pedestrians unwittingly paralyzed and rendered frozen in space.

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Installation view, Toronto Image Works Gallery, 2009

Movement Portraits

Photographic composite series: variable dimensions, 2007 and 2011

Actualized through custom Processing software, Movement Portraits are photographic composites that depict pedestrian movement through a sliver of urban space. Time in each of the Movement Portraits is represented—literally—from the left side of the image to right (for example, the left-most edge represents 12:00:00, and the right-most edge represents 12:00:03). As a result, static elements recorded are repeated in thin vertical slivers causing a horizontal streaking affect. Moving elements such as pedestrians, pass through the sliver being recorded, and are rendered as recognizable figures.

Detail

Shoppers (Yellow), 6”x52.5” (2011)

Swimmer, 6”x50” (2011)

Dog Park, 6”x48” (2011)

Skate Park, 6”x42.5” (2011)

Pedestrian (Green), 6”x59” (2011)

Pigeons in Leisure, 6”x50.5” (2011)

Couple No. 1, 3”x6” (2007)

Couple No. 2, 3”x6” (2007)

Couple No. 3, 3”x4.5” (2007)

Dundas Square

Single channel video (HD), 4 minutes 40 seconds, 2016

Dundas Square is the second in the Pulse Crowds series. Pulse Crowds are representations of urban spaces in which the movement of people and vehicles is influenced by an external mechanized event. These events produce an undulating effect on the spaces' inhabitants: activity in the space shifts from static to active in a repetitive rhythm, highlighting both the archetypes and the outliers of pedestrian and vehicular movement.

The Alchemist Husband

The Alchemist Husband places the viewer in the role of a modern scientist. Her proximity to the work determines what breed of wheat grows: a perennial (wheat that grows wild); an annual (a plant we’ve farmed and altered through millennia of breeding); or a scientifically edited plant (a hybridization of each).

If the viewer activates the scientifically edited plant, she will create either the desired hybrid of perennial roots and annual grass or, occasionally, the edit will go awry. Which plant is created is determined by the code embedded in the plant, not by the viewer. The viewer can only determine which physical relationship she would like to pursue.

Alchemy is a form of early chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It is principally concerned with discovering methods for transmuting the atoms of baser metals into gold. Husbandry is the caring for, and cultivation of, plants or animals.